DNA reveals the past and future of coral reefs
New DNA techniques are being used to understand how coral reacted to the end of the last ice age in order to better predict how they will cope with current changes to the climate. James Cook Univer
From 2005 to 2022, the main node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies was headquartered at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland (Australia)
The Apicomplexa parasites Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium spp are responsible for a tremendous human health burden. Despites powerful genetic tools and high quality genomic databases, half of the predicted genes have no known function or similarity outside the Apicomplexa phylum. I will present two approaches to assign and study function of those novel proteins.
In T. gondii, cellular differentiation from the replicating stage to the bradyzoite tissue cyst stage is the underlying cause of chronic toxoplasmosis. The molecular mechanisms responsible for this developmental switch have long been sought. We identified 11 novel AP2 domain-containing proteins whose mRNA levels are induced in bradyzoites. Knock out, conditional expression, protein binding microarrays and transcriptomics defined one of those factors, AP2IX-9, as a transcription factor apparently acting as a gatekeeper to bradyzoite differentiation.
Despite strong evolutionary winds, recent transcriptome work reveals a similar gene expression cascade unfolding during the replication of Apicomplexa. We hypothesized that functionality, inferred by expression timing, could be utilized to identify novel pan-apicomplexan cell division cycle (panApi-CDC) genes. We identified 649 panApi-CDC genes of which ~25% encode unknown proteins. Those orthologs exhibit a remarkable preservation of timing and abundance suggesting important functions required for all apicomplexan cell division. Folding predictions revealed these proteins as highly disordered and, consistent with this observation, some act as interaction hubs as revealed by mining the Plasmodium interactome. Our ongoing experimental approach is validating and assigning function to those novel proteins.
New DNA techniques are being used to understand how coral reacted to the end of the last ice age in order to better predict how they will cope with current changes to the climate. James Cook Univer
A new study on the effects of climate change in five tropical countries has found fisheries are in more trouble than agriculture, and poor people are in the most danger. Distinguished Profess
James Cook University researchers have found brightly coloured fish are becoming increasingly rare as coral declines, with the phenomenon likely to get worse in the future. Christopher Hemingson, a
Researchers working with stakeholders in the Great Barrier Reef region have come up with ideas on how groups responsible for looking after the reef can operate more effectively when the next bleaching
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Abstract: The past few years have seen unprecedented coral bleaching and mortality on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) but the consequences of this on biodiversity are not yet known. This talk will expl
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